Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Yesterday, Wilco announced the second edition of its Solid Sound Festival. This year, the event is taking place June 24-26, again at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MOCA for short). Two headline sets by the band are part of this year's festivities, as is a comedy cabaret hosted by John Hodgman and tons of other musical performers, chosen by members of Wilco. Tickets are on sale Friday, January 21, at 11 a.m. EST.

Now, the festival is also featuring something else very cool: a "pop-up store" created by none other than St. Louis' own Euclid Records. In other words, Euclid's going to have a presence at Solid Sound, selling music and the like. How did that come about?

Well, thank the band's ties to Euclid Records -- in the form of one-time Lou resident Tony Margherita (who has managed Wilco and Uncle Tupelo) and, of course, former employee Jeff Tweedy.

"I've known Tony Margherita for 30-odd years and Jeff Tweedy for over 20," says Euclid Records owner Joe Schwab. "Tony was my store manager for six, seven years and Jeff worked as a clerk for a year or two. We've also been selling Wilco and Uncle Tupelo merchandise exclusively in the store for the past couple months."

Schwab also notes that Euclid was asked to appear at last year's Solid Sound Festival, "but it was too close to LouFest and we couldn't pull it off." Still, he's glad schedules aligned this year so the store could participate.

"I'm really excited about doing the festival this year, and was disappointed we couldn't pull it off last year," Schwab says. "I've seen video and read reviews of last years Solid Sound and it looked like such a cool scene."

Stay tuned later this afternoon tomorrow for a blogpost about what Euclid Records' record label is up to.